Clarity and Relativism
by Moderation
Summary: When Sirius fell through the Veil, he didn't expect a second chance, he didn't expect that he'd find a new best friend in a certain blond Hokage, and he didn't expect to meet his godson again. But then again, life is unpredictable, isn't it? Not Yaoi.


_**Clarity and Relativism**_

_**By Moderation**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, nor do I own Harry Potter. The views expressed in the story are mine though.**_

* * *

_Only one couple were still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: He was laughing at her. "Come on, you can do better than that!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room._

_The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest._

_The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock._

_Harry released Neville, though he was unaware of doing so. He was jumping down the steps again, pulling out his wand, as Dumbledore turned on the dais too._

_It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall. His body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backward through the ragged veil hanging from the arch…_

_And Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfather's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind and then fell back into place._

_Harry heard Bellatrix Lestrange's triumphant scream, but knew it meant nothing- Sirius had only fallen through the archway, he would reappear from the other side any second…_

_But Sirius did not reappear._

_(Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, pg. 806)_

* * *

The only thing that Sirius could be sure of was that he had lost.

One moment he was battling his cousin, that whore Bellatrix, and the next thing he was aware of was darkness.

He tried to open his eyes but soon realized he didn't have eyes to look through, much less eyelids.

_Huh, so this is what the veil is like?_ He thought in a sense of amused detachment.

Suddenly, anxiety gripped his heart. _Harry._ Dammit! He was in the middle of a battle- defending Harry- when he was shoved through the archway. Would Harry be alright? Would the Order win? The only comfort he could draw from the situation was that Dumbledore was there when he arrived with the rest of the Order. _He'll protect Harry at least._

Once he could feel the anxiety lessen, he turned his attention back to his vanished body. He couldn't feel anything. Not his fingers, nor head, nor legs. It was rather like he was a floating consciousness submerged in a pool of warm water.

_Is this what death is like? It's peaceful… I wonder if I'll see James. James. Damn it, he probably won't want anything to do with me. After all, fifteen years after his death and what have I accomplished for Harry? So far he's spent his life with the Dursleys of all people. He probably never kissed a girl, never once went to those muggle theaters Lily kept talking about. Even when I escaped, how did Harry's life improve then? He was roped into a ritual to bring back the Dark Lord and subjected to after-school torture by that old toad of a teacher, if Dumbledore is to be believed…_

If Sirius could have sighed, he would've.

_If only I could have another chance… If only… if…_

Groggily, Sirius noted that he now felt like he was being lifted from water into cold, open air. Powerful shivers convulsed across his body. _Wait!_ His body! He had a body!

A look of confusion passed across his face. He had just fallen through the veil of death, hadn't he? So why did he still have a body? Was he still alive?

His questions would remain unanswered for the time being however. Succumbing to exhaustion, Sirius Black drifted off into uneasy sleep.

* * *

"Hokage-sama!" the door was immediately thrown open to reveal a dark haired male standing in the doorway.

"Hmm?" the addressed blonde, the Hokage, turned to his subordinate. "What is it?"

"Sir!" the man saluted. "Several minutes ago, our patrols in the surrounding forest found an injured male with dark hair. He was reported to be unconscious and suffering from extreme exhaustion."

"I see…" the blond continued to run his brush across the form on his desk, signing his name with a flourish. "Where is he now?"

"In the hospital sir under heavy guard. It has yet to be confirmed if the man is a spy or not."

"Hmm." The leader gave a heavy sigh. "Very well, report to me when the man has regained consciousness."

"Sir!" the man saluted once more before the door to the room was thrown open again.

"Hokage-sama, the man found in the woods has awoken!"

The Hokage stared at the newcomer in surprise. "…That was quick."

The man off to the side nodded in agreement. "And convenient."

"Well then…" The blonde stood to his full height. "Let's go greet our new visitor, shall we?"

Nothing else was said as all three disappeared, their images flickering and fading, leaving behind a trail of leaves.

* * *

Sirius watched in confusion as he was hooked up to a machine often found in muggle hospitals. Didn't these people recognize him as a criminal? After all, the Ministry of Magic certainly made it no secret that they thought _he_ was the one releasing all the Death Eaters from their prisons for the last few months. Then again, the equipment was muggle, so maybe these people weren't magical?

But no, that wasn't right. While not a magic sensor or anything else equally ridiculous, even Sirius could sense the abundant ambient magic in the air. There was no way these people _couldn't_ be aware of magic!

So caught up in his musings, he almost missed the nurse that walked up to him. He stared at her in mixed degrees of shock, confusion, and awe as she healed the shallow cuts around his arms. First reason for his behavior: she did it while smiling at him. No one treated criminals that way! Second reason: She healed him without a _bloody_ wand!

Instead of a wand, her hand was incased in a soft green glow that healed his wounds on contact.

He poked his arm in amazement, hardly believing that she healed his injuries so quickly. Not even Madame Pomfrey could heal him as quickly.

His gaze was drawn back to her when she gave a giggle at his expression and winked at him.

Heh, even in the afterlife, he still had it.

Sirius poked his head around looking at his surroundings. He was in a white room that reeked of disinfectant. Hospital: Check. He was stripped of his cloths and in one of those embarrassing patients' outfits instead. Humiliation: Check. He didn't have any of his possessions or even his wand in sight. Powerless: Check. Finally, he was chained to the bed and had multiple designs drawn onto him in what looked like ink. Trapped: Check.

Before he could examine the room in any more detail, three figures appeared in his room at the foot of his bed.

Blinking, Sirius chuckled before offering his chained hands to the man at the lead.

"Would you mind getting these off? They're starting to chafe."

Sirius' heart sank when the man responded. Not because he responded in the negative, but because he couldn't understand the man at all.

Naruto Uzumaki, the Seventh Hokage, gazed at the man in confusion. This was the man his men thought was a spy? Please...

Naruto had much experience with spies, he was once one himself after all, and he didn't like to brag but he had picked up a few 'tools of the trade' here and there. One of them was to sneak in and blend in without being detected. Fail. Two, don't let yourself get captured. Fail. Three, do not begin the mission looking like you haven't eaten in months, tended to make one stick out. And fail.

This man wasn't a spy. Naruto didn't need to be an empathic to determine this. It was in the man's posture. The way he stood, talked, and acted suggested no ulterior motives.

Then the man opened his mouth. Naruto blinked.

_What?_

The man did not speak the same language.

The man didn't speak Elemental.

There's another language?

He watched as the man futilely tried to gesture his meaning before seeming to give up.

Naruto picked up where he left off and pointed to himself. "Naruto"

The man seemed to get the idea and pointed to himself in turn. "Sirius."

With that the man started to gesture again and Naruto could say that he was completely lost.

* * *

Sirius palmed his forehead before trying again. "Okay, do you know where my stuff is?" He had tried enunciating and gesturing to convey his meaning, but he man just didn't get it.

They had been engaged in these charades for the past hour, so it surprised Sirius when the one of the masked duo behind the blonde suddenly leaned over and whispered in his ear. They proceeded in a fast conversation that Sirius would have been hard pressed to decipher even if they spoke the same language.

To his surprise, one of the duo disappeared for a moment before reappearing with a small container. In it, Sirius recognized his beat up clothes, some of the confiscated items from the Weasley twins that had been in his pocket, and his wand.

Hope sprung up in his chest at the sight of his black wand before gesturing to it. The duo both argued with the blonde before the blonde held up a hand, preventing them from speaking. Naruto then reached over and deftly plucked the wand from the box and handed it to a grateful Sirius with a sheepish smile.

Sirius grasped the wand, comforting in the rush of power at the familiar texture.

Raising his wand until it was at head height, he spoke. "Vertere."

A white light glowed at the tip before dissipating. Looking back at the others in the room, Sirius held back a smile at their uneasy looks.

"What was that?" Naruto asked nervously, not expecting to be answered.

Sirius' smile broke free. "Magic."

Naruto blinked dumbly, along with his escort. "I understand you!" He pointed at Sirius in surprise.

Sirius flashed his white teeth at the man. "Yep, and I understand you."

Naruto frowned at the smug man. "What was that?"

"Magic."

Naruto's eye twitched. "Magic isn't real."

"Yes it is."

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is."

"No it isn't."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"You're acting very immature about this." Sirius commented offhand.

Naruto scoffed. "Right, and you aren't?"

"No, I am, but unlike you, I'm a prankster. We're allowed to act like this."

Naruto ignored the comment. "What was it really, though?"

Naruto's mood elevated as it was Sirius' turn to pout. "I already told you. Magic."

Rolling his eyes, Naruto nodded mockingly. "I'm very sure."

Sirius shot up in bed, only to immediately back down when the masked duo appeared in front of him with a knife at his throat. The mood darkened and Sirius broke out into a cold sweat. _What the hell?_ The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife, and speaking of knives.

"W-would you mind removing your very pointy weapon from my neck?" Sirius asked, just a tad miffed that his voice shot up so high.

Naruto looked amused before calling off the duo.

"You two, leave. I'd like to talk to Sirius here alone."

The two stiffened before turning back to argue.

"**Now**." It was a demand. Sirius and even the duo flinched at the warped demonic voice. Looking up, his heart nearly stopped at the sight of red feral eyes. The pressure in the room was suffocating.

And was gone. The tension and pressure disappeared along with the duo.

Sirius watched cautiously as the blond pulled up a seat and plopped into it.

"Sorry about those two." The blonde waved a hand at the door. "You'll find that everyone at the village here is a bit high strung. With a war approaching, the entire village is in a paranoid tiff, seeing spies in every corner."

His penetrating gaze slid onto Sirius, examining him with cool sapphire eyes. "First off, I'd like to ask what you're doing here. Who attacked you?"

Taking a deep breath, Sirius began. "I really don't know where here is, to tell the truth." As an afterthought, "And I'm telling the truth about magic."

Naruto 'hmm'ed. "We're in Konoha." Upon seeing his confusion, Naruto expanded. "You know, Land of Fire? No? How about Elemental Countries? No again?"

Sirius frowned, not one of these places he knew.

"Hmm." Naruto hummed under his breath. "Well I don't know how you got here, in case you're wondering. And I do believe you're telling the truth 'bout magic."

"Really?" Sirius straightened in bed.

Naruto shrugged. "Why not? I've seen stranger stuff than magic. Hell, I contain a demonic fox in my navel."

Sirius nodded along. "Well yeah, I- wait what?" Naruto ignored the man's look of confusion. "That's… really forward of you, I suppose."

"Meh, anyway… like I asked earlier, who attacked you?"

Sirius fingered the spot on his chest where Bellatrix struck him with her spell. "Well, my godson was being attacked a while ago, and when I got word, me and some friends rushed down to help. My… my family was on the other side and my cousin shot me through an archway…" He trailed off, remembering his trip through the veil. Something clicked in his mind.

"Would- would you mind if I borrowed a map?"

Naruto looked surprised at the request, but reached over and opened a drawer in a nightstand beside the bed.

Sirius accepted the map, although he was confused. "Why do you have maps in hospitals?"

Naruto shrugged with amusement. "You'd be surprised how often we need them in here."

Sirius frowned at the non-sequitor, but continued examining the map. On it he saw one large land mass surrounded by sea. That was it.

"Um, do you have any maps larger than this?"

"Larger, yes. One that shows anything else, no."

Placing the map down gently, Sirius placed his head in his hands. "Dear Merlin, I…"

A hand gripped his shoulder. He looked up to see Naruto looking upon him in concern.

"What?"

"I- I think I'm in another world!"

* * *

Naruto leaned back in his desk, regarding the man across him with interest. It was an interesting claim, to be from another world, but not one Naruto was going to dismiss outright. After Sirius had presented his hypothesis, Naruto had left, ordering the hospital to release him, remove his seal, and give him new clothes once he was better, along with instructions to go to his office.

It had been a few days since then and the man across from him was obviously better for it. He had had a few more healthy meals along with bed rest, and had filled out nicely. Sure, he was still lean, but he no longer looked like he had been starved.

Now the man was sitting across from him.

"It is good to see you are feeling better."

Sirius nodded gratefully.

"I can't thank you enough, although… I do have some questions."

"Oh?" Naruto discretely activated a silencing seal that would hide the conversation from others.

"Well, back at the hospital, you accepted the fact I had magic very quickly once you're men left. Why?"

Leaning back in the chair, Naruto considered it. "Well, like you noticed, I only accepted the argument once the men were gone. You don't know it right now, but my hold on this position is tenuous at best. I can't afford to look like a naïve quack in front of my men by accepting such an answer so quickly."

Sirius sunk into his chair, realizing that his cheeky response only served to exacerbate his host's problems.

"So why is your position tenuous? I know you're young but…"

"Oh, it has nothing to do with age. Twenty-eight is actually a very mature age in our society. No, it has to do with the fact that I am considered a radical by my peers."

"What?" Sirius blinked. This man didn't seem at all what he would consider a radical. Such distinctions fell to people like Malfoy and Voldemort. Murderous sociopaths.

Naruto grimaced. "Yeah, my views aren't considered normal. I was groomed for the position by my predecessor, but even her views were extremely different from mine. I'm an idealist. Such a person doesn't normally survive as a shinobi, but thanks to preexisting conditions…" his hand drifted to his stomach.

"Shinobi, is that what you call yourselves then?" Sirius leaned forward, intrigued. He didn't really know what to make of these people. They could use magic, but they used hand signs, not wands. They didn't call it magic either, they called it chakra. Their society was also fundamentally different from magic societies. They didn't hide their powers from muggles, instead they worked for them. They also seemed far more physical than wizards, although that wasn't so surprising when they didn't use wands and jets of light, instead using the _body_ as a focus for their magic.

"Yes. We work as hired mercenaries normally, but jobs can vary from assassinations to baby-sitting to construction and everything in between." Naruto nodded.

"So…" Sirius was still confused. "What views make you a radical?

Naruto sighed. "It's hard to say. Before I tell you, would you mind telling me a bit about your world, I have to admit that I'm intrigued."

Sirius was confused with the turnaround, and a tad bit miffed, but could tell that Naruto was going to say very little unless he contributed something to the conversation.

"There's not much to tell… Well actually, there is a lot to tell, it's just common knowledge and is a little hard to explain. In my world there are two types of people, magical and non-magical. After a long history of my kind being hunted for our powers, our society went into hiding. Centuries later, we're just a myth. Today, there are multiple muggle-non magical- governments with a magical counterpart. In my country, England, we have a school called Hogwarts that teaches kids how to use magic. Each wizard is sent a letter on their eleventh birthday and invited to the school…"

Naruto raised a finger to interrupt. "Are you telling me that your magic is a genetic trait?" At seeing Sirius' confused look, he elaborated. "As in, it's passed down in a family."

Sirius grew disgruntled. "Sorta. While a child in a magical family is almost guaranteed to have magic, sometimes magical kids can spring up from muggle families. There's a secret war going on in England over _Pure-Blood Supremacy_. How only those from magical families deserve to learn magic and how the rest should be purged. Load of shite if you ask me."

Naruto lean forward, as if remembering. "You were in a fight before you arrived here, you said it was about your godson."

Sirius answered the unspoken question. "My godson vanquished the leader the Pure-bloods in the war before as a child. He made himself a target of the movement since then." Sirius sunk lower in his chair. "About a year ago, the leader, Voldemort, brought himself back to life using a ritual with Harry being a key unwilling role in it. This year, he apparently thought I was in danger and rushed off to save me. It was a trick though to get him away from Dumbledore's protection."

Naruto raised a finger in question. "Dumbledore?"

"Leader of the Light. Figurehead in the resistance against Voldemort. Anyway, Voldemort also wanted Harry to retrieve a prophecy that only he could access. Voldemort set up an ambush for Harry, but Dumbledore's group, the Order of the Phoenix, was able to intercept them. During the fight, I was blasted through the veil of death. It was rumored to be a gateway to hell, but I guess not…"

Naruto leaned back, nodding his head. "And then you ended up here, where my patrols found you…"

Sirius nodded. That about summed it up. "So what about you? What did you mean that you were a radical?"

Sirius watched with a small amount of pity as the powerful young man across from him seemed to deflate at his self-appointed title.

"Ah, yeah." He smiled weakly. "W-well, ever since I was a kid, I always grew up hearing about how amazing shinobi were, ya know? I can't really think of what child my age _didn't_ want to be a shinobi. Honestly, we were all just conditioned to believe that being a shinobi was like being a hero, a knight in shining armor." He laughed bitterly. "And what child didn't want to be a hero at that age? It's amazing how age and war can open up someone's eyes."

Sirius remained silent as Naruto shuddered, groping underneath his desk for something. "Really, now it's just so clear." Naruto brought out a small bottle, offering it to Sirius. "Sake?" Sirius shook his head to decline. The ninja shrugged and brought the bottle to his lips.

"We were _conditioned_!" Naruto slammed his hands on the desk. "Konoha, the most enlightened village, conditioned kids barely ten years old into believing that six-year-old children soldiers were acceptable! And while I understand this- hell I _do_, I _understand_, we were surrounded from all sides by villages, under constant threat of destruction- it is _no longer needed_. We just finished a war, there is no more need for any more violence. And with the end of the war, with the amount of power we had, our village could have easily pushed for change. Not only for ourselves, but for all the villages."

Dragging a hand over his face, Naruto roughly rubbed his bloodshot eyes. "And what do we do, we decide that the current system was _acceptable_. Can you imagine that? The same system that forced the world into four wars was deemed _acceptable_."

Sirius hesitantly watched as Naruto slumped against the desk, barely believing what he was hearing. _Children soldiers? World Wars? What the hell kind of world did I fall into?_

"When I spoke up, you know what happened? Everyone just looked at me like I went crazy. I'd have gotten better reactions if I punched someone's grandma." Despite the tense atmosphere, Sirius couldn't help but snort in amusement.

Naruto shot him a scathing look, before standing up and pacing. "You may laugh, but it wasn't funny at the time. Hell, it isn't even funny now. Thanks to this damned shinobi system, my world is tearing itself apart. We have gone through _four_ world wars in less than one hundred years. If something doesn't change soon it will be too late for any sort of long lasting peace. It's been little more than a decade since the last war and already other villages are gearing up for war, and over the pettiest things: mission requests and prestige. Why? Because it brings in _money_. Human lives will be lost forever because of a war that will most likely start years later."

Any trace of humor that Sirius had captured moments earlier had long since disappeared. Thoughts of wars and death reminding him all too closely of the loss of James and Lily. Even the war was familiar, because while the Blood-Purists may have ranted about blood status, to Sirius, who grew up Black, it was all just a tantrum over the declining affluence that the well-off Purebloods had once held.

Naruto finally seemed to have run out of steam, because he was back in his seat, voice barely rising above a whisper.

"So yes, I'm a radical. I'm a radical because I want peace, because I want to stop fighting and start building something long lasting. I'm a radical because I can see where our culture, this system, is leading us, and it scares me. And the worst part is, that when I look at the oncoming storm, I stand alone."


End file.
